


For Reference

by Acrazia



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Buzzfeed Unsolved References, Buzzfeed Unsolved True Crime, Fanwork Research & Reference Guides, Historical References, Nonfiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-28
Updated: 2019-05-29
Packaged: 2020-03-06 09:42:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18848482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Acrazia/pseuds/Acrazia
Summary: My summaries of each case Buzzfeed Unsolved with links to the corresponding video and dialogue highlights.The idea behind this is that anyone could say, "Ah, what episode was (insert something they said) in?", and then come to this work, hit entire work, and then just ctrl + f your way to knowledge instead of watching literally every episode again.





	1. The Mysterious Death of the Somerton Man

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this ep, we discover Ryan did not know about the existence of pasties.

True Crime Season 1: Episode 1

Posted by Buzzfeed Multiplayer February 4, 2016.

[Link to video](https://youtu.be/xkW3rMkxvqY)

\-----------------

December 1, 1948, 6:30am

Adelaide, Australia

A man was found dead on beach with his head leaning against a wall, with no wallet or ID. No fingerprint match. Dressed well, without any tags on his clothes. Last thing consumed was a pasty. His death was ruled heart failure, although he could have also been poisoned.

 

**Ryan: the last thing he had eaten was a pasty, uh which I'm assuming is Australian speak for a pastry**

**Brent: you mean he didn't eat the little thing that like, comes on women's nipples?**

**Ryan: what the fuck are you...**

**Brent: that's what a pasty is...**

 

January 14, 1949

A suitcase was found at a train station in Adelaide, that was believed to have belonged to the man. The labels were removed from everything, and included clothes, a screwdriver, a stencilling brush (used for marking cargo), a shortened table knife, and scissors.

June 17, 1949

Around the same time the inquest into the matter began, they find a small piece of paper in the man's fob pocket (a small pocket made to hold a pocketwatch,) taken from a book called "Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám," a collection of Persian quatrains written by Omar Khayyám, which was translated into English by Edward Fitzgerald in 1859. The paper reads, "Tamám Shud" which means, "It is ended/It is finished."

After the police ask for help from the public, a man came up with a 1941 copy of the English translation of the book that the paper had been torn from, published from Whitcombe and Tombs in Christchurch, New Zealand. On the inside of the back cover was found a telephone number, an encrypted message, and another number that could not be identified. The following message has never been decrypted:

WRGOABABD  
~~MLIAOI~~  
WTBIMPANETP  
MLIABOAIAQC  
ITTMTSAMSTGAB

It is noted that the second line had a strikethrough, and because of it's similarities to the fourth line, is considered an error in encryption.

The phone number was for a woman named Jessica Ellen "Jo" Thomson, who lived in Moseley St, Glenelg, about 400 meters from where the Somerton Man had been found. Upon seeing the cast of the man, she said she did not know him. She was noted to be acting suspiciously and probably did know the man.

The theme of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is that one should live life to the fullest and have no regrets when it ends. This lead some to believe that the man committed suicide via poison.

In 2011, an Adelaide woman found an ID card in her father's possessions for a British man named H. C. Reynolds, issued by the US for foreign seamen. A biological anthropologist has said that the ID is a match for the Somerton Man.

Theories:

1\. Suicide by poisoning.  
2\. Murder.  
3\. Aliens, probably.

 

Sources:

[Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamam_Shud_case)

[The Advertiser News Article](https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/is-british-seamans-identity-card-clue-to-solving-63yearold-beach-body-mystery/news-story/b0f696e3e2a3d82a88cb5d1788f17f25)


	2. The Horrifying Unsolved Slaughter At Hinterkaifeck Farm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which Ryan doesn't know you can doctor pictures.

True Crime Season 1: Episode 2

Posted by Buzzfeed Multiplayer on February 20, 2016

[Link to video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHMGMddHT6Q)

\----------------

March 31, 1922

Bavaria, Germany

Six people were murdered on the Hinterkaifeck Farm with a mattock; parents Andreas and Cäzilia Gruber, their daughter Viktoria Gabriel, Viktoria's children, Cäzilia and Josef, and the new maid, Maria Baumgartner. (A mattock is similar to a pickaxe. It can either be a combination between an axe and an adze, like a sharp hoe, or a combination between a pick and an adze.)

Josef and Maria were murdered in their beds, but the rest of the family were murdered in the barn, and then stacked on top of each other.

 

**Brent: safe to assume they weren't... already stacked on top of each other...**

**Ryan: (wheeze)**

**Brent: and then killed**

**Ryan: no hahah**

**Brent: but they were killed and THEN stacked on top of each other**

**Ryan: and then he killed them all in one fatal strike**

**Brent: hahah okay...**

**Ryan: yeah, no it didn't happen that way**

 

The murderer stayed in the house for days following the murders. The neighbors said they saw smoke coming from the chimney, the cows were being tended to, and the dog had been tied up outside.

The bodies were discovered on Sunday, April 4.

The autopsies were performed in the barn. A home-made mattock was the likely murder weapon, but they would not find it until the farm was demolished in 1923, hidden in a false floor by the fireplace.

Maria was newly hired the day of the murders. The previous maid had quit six months earlier, due to the house being haunted. She heard footsteps in the attic and voices. Then the family began hearing footsteps. Andreas Gruber found a newspaper nobody in the house read, a key went missing, the toolshed had signs that someone had tried to pick the lock, and footprints in the snow lead into the house, but not back out.

No money was taken, leading investigators to believe it was a crime of passion.

Over 100 suspects were questioned, the most recent being in 1986, but no one was charged.

The skulls were sent to Munich for further investigation, and were later lost. It's suspected they were destroyed in the bombings of World War 2.

Hinterkaifeck was never an official place name. "Hinter" meaning "behind," and Kaifeck, the name of the nearby hamlet.

 

Theories:

1\. Viktoria's husband, Karl Gabriel, did not die in the war, and instead came back to the home and slaughtered the entire family for some reason.

2\. Lorenz Schlittenbauer, who had proposed to Viktoria when his wife died in 1918, did it for vengeance because Andreas cockblocked him, and said that they could not get married.

3\. Ghosts, probably.

 

Sources:

[Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinterkaifeck_murders)

[The Hinterkaifeck Wiki (German)](https://www.hinterkaifeck.net/wiki/index.php?title=Das_Hinterkaifeck-Wiki:Aktuelle_Ereignisse)

[The Strange Company Blog](https://strangeco.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-hinterkaifeck-mystery.html)

 


	3. The Bizarre Death Of Elisa Lam

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which Ryan admits that being a ghost scientist would be weird.

True Crime Season 1; Episode 3

Posted by Buzzfeed Multiplayer on March 18, 2016

[Link to video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48jBi86ih5Q)

\---------------

January 26, 2013

Los Angeles, California

Elisa Lam, aka Lam Ho Yi/藍可兒, a 21 year old Canadian tourist, checks into the Stay on Main Hotel, previously known as the Cecil Hotel.

Feb 19, 2013

Elisa's body was found in a water tank on the roof of the Cecil Hotel, due to hotel guests complaining of low water pressure and water that was black and had a bad taste.

 

**Brent: are you going to drink the water?**  
**Ryan: no, I'm not going to drink the water**  
**Ryan: don't drink that, come on man**  
**Brent: cheers! (drinks)**  
**Ryan: you're a savage**  
**Brent: tastes clean**  
**Ryan: i mean, it has been three years**  
**Ryan: (drinks) it tastes just like water, but it's too much for me to bear, I can't...**  
**Ryan: plus, there's like this weird fuckin' water pipe thing going on up here...**

 

She originally was in a hostel style shared room, but her roommates complained of odd behavior, and she was subsequently moved into a single room.

The last video of Elisa taken on February 1, 2013, shows her acting strangely in the elevator. She walks into the elevator, and hits all of the buttons. She may have been aware that this would hold the elevator doors open, or she may have just been messing around. (A/N: I'm unable to find a source on this information, other than several comments in Youtube videos of the footage. This may be just hearsay or outright false.) The video has been extensively analyzed, and some believe the footage was tampered with, ranging from the obvious obscuring of the timestamp at the bottom of the video, to cutting at least a minute of footage or slowing parts down.

Due to the level of decomposition she had underwent, toxicology tests were incomplete. From what they could gather, she had traces of her prescription medication, ibuprofen, a sinus medication, and a very small amount of alcohol. No recreational drugs were found.

A man named Kay Theng posted a video on Youtube showing how easy it was to get onto the roof. When he reaches the top of the stairs next to the water tanks, he notes that two of them were open at the time. (Please see sources for video. Top comment on the video is a rough English translation of the narration.)

The coroner's autopsy report did not say whether or not her fingernail or rape kits had been processed. It should be noted that coroners are not necessarily medical professionals, and, as of 2018, the only requirements to become a coroner in Los Angeles county are: 80 hour Peace Officer Training, 1 year Coroner Trainee Program, and a valid driver's license.

Her phone was never found. Whether it had been stolen or lost in the interim remains unsolved.

 

Theories:

1\. Murder.

2\. Suicide.

3\. Accidental drowning.

 

 

Sources:

[Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Elisa_Lam)

[Kay Theng's video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YweZJeZo13A&lc=z13hepjysuecyn0wc04chfzwqkuvtfp5as40k)

[LA coroner job listing](https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/lacounty/jobs/1326139/coroner-investigator)


	4. The Chilling Mystery Of The Black Dahlia (Take 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which Ryan introduces the series: Buzzfeed Unsolved.

True Crime Season 1: Episode 4

Posted by Buzzfeed Multiplayer on April 1, 2016

[Link to video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gM6NG2PN4Q)

\-----------

January 15, 1947, 10:00am

Los Angeles, California

22 year old Elizabeth Short's body was discovered in the morning by Betty Bersinger. She was so pale that Betty first thought that she'd found a mannequin.

Short's autopsy was performed by Dr. Frederick Newbarr, coroner/autopsy surgeon. Elizabeth had been given a Glasgow Grin post mortem. She'd also been bisected at the waist post mortem as well, noted from the lack of bruising at the incisions. The procedure, a severely mutilating and last resort known as a hemicorporectomy, was noted to be done in a way taught in the 1930's, from Wikipedia, "The lower half of her body had been removed by transecting the lumbar spine between the second and third lumbar vertebrae, thus severing the intestine at the duodenum." Samples came back negative for sperm.

No blood was found on the ground, making it clear that her body was moved there after the murder.

January 26, 1947

An envelope addressed with cut out letters clipped from movie ads was sent to the Los Angeles Examiner, containing birth certificate, social security card, snapshots, and an address book with some pages missing.

 

It read:

Los Angeles Examiner and other Los Angeles papers

Here is Dahlia's belongings

Letter to follow

 

 **Ryan: Gasoline was rubbed on the contents to remove fingerprints.**  
**Brent: life hack, right there**  
**Ryan: (wheeze)**  
**Ryan: what if it caught up in flames in transit?**  
**Ryan: do you think he was like,**  
**Brent: yeah**  
**Ryan: sitting at his home nervous, thinking "oh I really hope they got my letter"**

 

She had been with Robert Manley in San Diego until checking into the Biltmore Hotel.

Many reports state that the Biltmore Hotel was the last place that Short was seen alive. Guests have said they've seen Short's ghost roaming the hotel.

 

 **Brent: no. absolutely not.**  
**Ryan: if I had the option... to haunt a place until someone found out who murdered me I think I would do that**  
**Brent: so if I step on... a fly?**  
**Brent: does a fly's ghost... stay around?**  
**Ryan: well, I mean, this is assuming that a fly is capable of complex thought**  
**Brent: alright, what about a dog or a dolphin?**  
**Ryan: I don't think that's impossible that there could be a ghost dolphin or dog**  
**Brent: so you think somewhere along the line...**  
**Brent: evolutionarily...**  
**Brent: there was the first animal...**  
**Brent: that was able to turn into a ghost and that somehow benefited them?**  
**Ryan: (defeated laughter) ...alright.**

 

She was often cited as being an aspiring film star, but she had no known acting jobs or credits.

In 1954, Robert Manley had been committed to a mental hospital for hearing voices.

 

 **Ryan: when administered sodium pentothal, which, apparently is a truth serum-**  
**Brent: PFFTT hah ha hah ha hah**  
**Ryan: hahehahuhah**  
**Brent: (inhales) what?**  
**Ryan: I'm not ki- fucking with you**  
**Ryan: that is literally what it is**  
**Brent: so they got fucking snape on the line**  
**Ryan: eheheh**  
**Brent: and said, "hey! give us your truth serum!"**  
**Ryan: (wheeze)**  
**Brent: this is why... cases are unsolved, because**  
**Ryan: hah (wheeze)**  
**Brent: they're working with 1947 technology**

 

George Hodel's house had a secret room that the children were not allowed to go.

 

**Ryan: and nothing screams innocent like a secret room**

 

Theories:

1\. Murder by Robert Manley.  
2\. Murder by Joseph Dumais.  
3\. Murder by George Hodel.

 

 

Sources:

[Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Dahlia)


	5. The Strange Deaths of the 9 Hikers of Dyatlov Pass

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WIP
> 
> In which Ryan reveals he doesn't know there's different kinds of radiation.

True Crime Season 1: Episode 5

Posted by Buzzfeed Multiplayer on April 15, 2016

[Link to video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQpNdevrtiM)

\----------

January 27, 1959

 

Vizhai (Вижай), Russia (formerly the Soviet Union)

 

A group of ten hikers lead by 23 year old Igor Dyatlov (Игорь Алексеевич Дятлов), began a trek from Vizhai (Вижай), the last inhabited settlement to the north, with the intent to travel to Otorten (Отортен) Mountain and back. Upon completion of the expedition, they would each become a certified Grade III hiker, the highest level of certification in the Soviet Union at the time. Most of the hikers were students at the Ural Polytechnical Institute, most ranging in age from 20 to 24, with one 38 year old, Zolotaryov. Semyon (Alexander) Zolotaryov (Семён (Александр) Золотарёв) is notable because he was studying for his Masters in ski instruction and mountain hiking. Dyatlov said he would send a telegram back to the sports club when the group returned to Vizhai to let them know they were okay. It was guessed that they'd return around Februrary 12, but expeditions like this could expect a few delays.

January 28, 1959

Yuri Yudin (Юрий Юдин), a 21 year old with rheumatism and a congenital heart defect, left the group to return to Vizhai, due to joint pain. He was the only survivor of the expedition, and lived until 2013.

January 31, 1959

Kholat Syakhl (Мёртвая вершина)

The group arrived at the edge of a highland area, and prepared to climb. They cached a supply of food and equipment for the hike back.

February 1, 1959

The hikers began to move through the pass. Due to snowstorms and decreasing visibility, they lost direction and deviated west. They realized their mistake, and set up camp for the night on the slope of the mountain, rather than moving a mile downhill into a forested area that would have provided some shelter from the storms. Yudin later guessed that either Dyatlov didn't want to lose the altitude they'd gained, or he wanted to practice camping on the slope.

February 20, 1959

The relatives of the hikers demanded a search and rescue be sent out.

February 26, 1959

The tent is found, abandoned. All of the group's belongings were left inside. It was cut open from the inside, and footprints of people walking, not running, in socks, one shoe, and barefoot, were followed down the path to the northeast, 1.5 kilometers towards the woods. After 500 meters, the footprints were covered by snow.

The searchers found the first two under a siberian pine, near the remains of a small fire. They wore only underwear. Between this pine and the camp, they found three more corpses, in poses suggesting they were trying to return to the camp. They were found separately, 300, 480, and 630 meters from the pine.

An inquest was began, and concluded that the five recovered hikers had died from hypothermia.

It would take more than two months to find the remaining hikers.

May 4, 1959

They were found in a ravine, 75 meters further into the woods than the pine tree, buried in 4 meters of snow, indicating they had fallen into a snow hole formed over a stream. Some were wearing the clothing of others that had died previously.

Upon the examination of these bodies, they found skull and chest fractures with no external injuries, as if they'd been broken by pressure. Lyudmila Dubinina (Людмила Дубинина) was the one found with the greatest external injuries, missing her eyes, tongue, part of her lips, and her hands were heavily macerated (softening/turning white of the skin due to being consistently wet.) This may be credited to her being found face down in the stream, thus allowing her corpse to decay.

There was no indication that other people had been on the mountain slope that night. The temperatures were between −13 to −22 °F. A high level of radiation was found on only one member's clothing.

**Brent: number 1... what kind of radiation?**   
**Brent: alpha, beta...**   
**Ryan: wha...**   
**Brent: gamma-**   
**Ryan: does it matter? it's radiation-**   
**Brent: well, eh, lots of things have radiation, like that word in itself is not necessarily as scary as one might think**

(A/N: I've yet to find a source that indicates what type of radiation and which hiker's vlothes had it.) Released documents revealed nothing about the hiker's internal organs. The inquest was closed in May, and the files were sent to a secret archive.

The area that the group was found in was officially named "Dyatlov Pass." The hikers are buried in Mikhajlov Cemetery in Yekaterinburg, Russia.

The pass is closed to hikers for three years after the incident. No source explaining why it took so long when the investigation was closed five months after they were found. 

April, 12 2018

The remains of Zolotarev were exhumed. The DNA they obtained did not match any of his existing relatives.

February 2019

Russian authorities were reported to be reopening the investigation.

 

Theories:

1\. Avalanche.

2\. Katabatic winds.

3\. A yeti.

4\. Infrasound.

5\. Military testing/missiles.

6\. Aliens, probably.

 

Sources:

 

[Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyatlov_Pass_incident)

[Ask A Mortician's take on the state of the bodies](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecrz_2yu0Ag)

[The St Petersburg Times](https://web.archive.org/web/20080226101529/http://www.sptimes.ru/story/25093)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I stg, if Ryan ever stops saying fe-bee-ary, I'm punching someone   
> (ง •̀_•́)ง


	8. Index: Timeline

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To be updated with each chapter.

Mar 1922: (Germany) Hinterkaifeck Slaughter- Chapter 2

Jan 1947: (USA) Black Dahlia- Chapter 4

Dec 1948: (Australia) Man at Somerton Beach- Chapter 1

Feb 1959: (Russia) Dyatlov Pass Incident- Chapter 5

Jan 2013: (USA) Elisa Lam - Chapter 3


End file.
